https://phys.org/space-news/planetary-sciences/ en-us Planetary science and exoplanets exploration news stories and features from Phys.org A team of researchers at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) has developed a new instrument designed to eliminate blind spots between lines of lidar data on Earth's surface. Built with support from NASA's Earth Science Technology Office (ESTO), the Concurrent Artificially-intelligent Spectrometry Lidar System (CASALS) could help researchers map the features of Earth's surface in detail. Rather than mechanically steering a laser with moving mirrors, CASALS steers light using wavelength itself, generating a continuous, 3D swath of the ground below. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-nasa-casals-instrument-bridges-gaps.html Planetary Sciences Wed, 21 Oct 2026 14:20:09 EDT news711795891 Earthquakes and the seismic waves they generate provide some of the best clues to Earth's interior. To extend that success to other worlds, scientists placed seismometers on the Apollo missions to the moon and on the Viking Mars landers, which reached Mars in 1976. Though the Apollo detectors proved a resounding success, Viking's results on Mars were less clear: Viking 1's seismometer failed to deploy properly, and Viking 2 recorded only two ambiguous events. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-reexamined-viking-reveals-marsquake-region.html Planetary Sciences Wed, 21 Oct 2026 12:40:06 EDT news711799802 The most comprehensive data set ever collected from Earth's atmosphere during a solar radiation event has highlighted the importance of better-coordinated radiation monitoring for aviation safety, according to new research led by the University of Surrey. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-rare-solar-storm-scientists-clearest.html Planetary Sciences Tue, 20 Oct 2026 21:00:01 EDT news711720267 A sequence on the Bayeux Tapestry shows King Harold alongside a crowd gazing at the sky, beneath the embroidered caption Isti mirant stella ("those people marvel at the star"). Above Harold sits Halley's Comet, with ghostlike invasion boats in the border below—a Norman framing of Harold as a doomed usurper whose betrayal invited destruction. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-terror-kings-halley-comet-medieval.html Astronomy Tue, 20 Oct 2026 17:30:01 EDT news711735061 Water isn't always as it seems. Under extreme conditions, such as those found on other planets, it has been discovered to change its atomic structure, giving it the means to alter its appearance and other properties. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-weve-physicists-earth-conditions.html Planetary Sciences Tue, 20 Oct 2026 16:10:02 EDT news711729662 Some supermassive black holes rapidly consume surrounding matter while simultaneously firing powerful streams of plasma into space at nearly the speed of light. However, this creates a physical puzzle: rapid feeding is expected to form a cold, flat accretion disk around the black hole, which prevents powerful jets from forming. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-hot-plasma-rapidly-black-holes.html Astronomy Tue, 20 Oct 2026 12:40:01 EDT news711711481 Scientists at Columbia University and Imperial College London have found that the largest canyon system in the solar system is still active and shaping Mars today, billions of years after it first formed. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-giant-canyon-mars-tectonically-today.html Planetary Sciences Tue, 20 Oct 2026 09:20:36 EDT news711705481 The interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS brought material from another planetary system within reach of our telescopes, but reading its chemistry poses a problem. Energetic particles encountered during its journey through space may have changed its outer layers, so how much of what astronomers detect still reflects the comet's birthplace? https://phys.org/news/2026-10-sun-meters-interstellar-comet-3iatlas.html Astronomy Tue, 20 Oct 2026 08:10:01 EDT news711696503 On Oct. 16, 2021, NASA's Lucy spacecraft began its journey to the never-before-explored Jupiter Trojan asteroids with an early morning launch. Now less than a year away from the first-ever close-up of a Trojan, the Southwest Research Institute–led mission has already made several findings during its first five years. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-lucy-mission-years-discoveries.html Space Exploration Tue, 20 Oct 2026 07:00:07 EDT news711691156 A Japanese spacecraft rocketed toward Mars on Tuesday on a quest to explore its mysterious moons and bring back samples. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-japan-spacecraft-mysterious-moons-mars.html Space Exploration Tue, 20 Oct 2026 05:40:13 EDT news711693525 By indirectly probing the depths of Uranus and Neptune's atmospheres, an international team of scientists has revealed a significant contrast in their chemical composition. Neptune appears to be more enriched in oxygen than Uranus. These results suggest that the two ice giants may have formed in different regions of the primitive solar system before reaching their current orbits, calling into question the idea of a common origin for these two planets, often considered twins. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-planetary-twins-uranus-neptune-stories.html Planetary Sciences Mon, 19 Oct 2026 18:40:06 EDT news711646141 Transforming Mars into a more Earth-like world could irreversibly destroy scientific evidence about the planet's history and the possibility of extraterrestrial life. In an opinion article published in Eos, a team of Dutch, French and U.S. planetary scientists and ethicists warns that humanity risks destroying Mars' scientific record before it has been fully explored. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-mars-scientists-ethical-debate-terraforming.html Planetary Sciences Mon, 19 Oct 2026 18:20:07 EDT news711635535 Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) were surprised to discover the earliest phases of giant planet formation between the dense layers of gas and dust in the "Gomez's Hamburger" system, referred to as GoHam. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-cosmic-hamburger-rare-edge-view.html Planetary Sciences Mon, 19 Oct 2026 16:20:01 EDT news711643081 Japanese scientists will launch a spacecraft on Tuesday that aims to be the first to retrieve samples from one of Mars' moons, potentially helping unlock the origins of the solar system and life on Earth. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-japan-world-mission-moon-mars.html Planetary Sciences Mon, 19 Oct 2026 15:30:01 EDT news711639870 The aurora is among nature's most visually striking phenomena. It occurs when charged particles from the sun are funneled by Earth's magnetic field into the upper atmosphere, where they collide with atoms and molecules and produce distinctly colored curtainlike patterns of light. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-auroral-electrons.html Planetary Sciences Mon, 19 Oct 2026 14:40:01 EDT news711628203 The European Space Agency's Euclid space telescope has discovered its first previously unknown comet in images taken between Sept. 16 and 24, 2026. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-euclid-comet-million-miles-earth.html Planetary Sciences Mon, 19 Oct 2026 13:20:01 EDT news711626041 Mercury remains one of our solar system's most elusive and difficult planets to study. It's easier to send probes to the icy moons of Saturn or Jupiter, or even to Pluto, than to land on our innermost planet, Mercury. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-enigmatic-mercury-puzzle-lander.html Planetary Sciences Mon, 19 Oct 2026 09:20:02 EDT news711610218 Japanese scientists are readying a mission to Mars' moons to retrieve samples that could help unlock the origins of the solar system and life on Earth, in what aims to be the first round trip to the Martian region. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-japan-historic-mission-mars-moon.html Space Exploration Sun, 18 Oct 2026 16:20:01 EDT news711555681 A Japanese space mission is about to launch towards Mars. But it will not land on the planet itself. Instead, the Martian Moons Exploration (MMX) mission will focus on Phobos, the bigger of Mars's two small moons. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-japan-mmx-mission-aims-swipe.html Space Exploration Sun, 18 Oct 2026 10:00:01 EDT news711356214 Japan is set to launch a spacecraft on the world's first mission to bring back samples from Phobos, one of the two small, potato-shaped moons orbiting Mars. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-japan-spacecraft-mission-samples-martian.html Planetary Sciences Sun, 18 Oct 2026 07:38:40 EDT news711527854 Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) researchers are developing three-dimensional simulations to examine how a nuclear device could be used to deflect or potentially disrupt an asteroid threatening Earth. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-simulations-explore-nuclear-mitigation-asteroid.html Planetary Sciences Sat, 17 Oct 2026 15:00:05 EDT news711191693 The ocean beneath Saturn's moon Enceladus lies under kilometers of ice, but some of its contents do reach the surface. Jets near the south pole spray out water vapor and icy particles, offering a way to investigate the hidden ocean without drilling down to it. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-salt-crystals-clues-life-beneath.html Astrobiology Sat, 17 Oct 2026 11:40:01 EDT news711288914 A Ph.D. student at the University of Sydney has produced the first comprehensive classification system and map of Martian soils, creating a new framework that could help scientists compare landscapes across the Red Planet and identify promising locations for future exploration, habitation and food production. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-comprehensive-mars-soil-classification-framework.html Astrobiology Fri, 16 Oct 2026 16:40:06 EDT news711372541 On May 10, 2025, a spacecraft built in the Soviet Union to land on Venus came home. Launched in 1972, Cosmos-482 was stranded by a failed upper stage of its rocket and circled Earth for 53 years. In its last days, several space agencies and research groups forecasted when it would fall, and therefore where. Roscosmos later reported that it came down in the Indian Ocean, west of Jakarta. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-air-deep-uncontrolled-satellites-rocket.html Space Exploration Fri, 16 Oct 2026 10:40:12 EDT news711280994 A new study of young tectonic landforms on the moon offers the most detailed estimate yet of how much the moon has contracted as its interior gradually cooled over time. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-lunar-fault-reveal-moon.html Planetary Sciences Thu, 15 Oct 2026 18:40:08 EDT news711296581 The Earth got its moon when a small planet collided with our planet more than 4 billion years ago. This impact hurled molten rock into space, which eventually coalesced to form the satellite we can see every night from across our planet. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-mars-moons-japan-mmx-space.html Space Exploration Thu, 15 Oct 2026 15:40:05 EDT news711282372 The space industry is rapidly expanding. About 20,000 satellites already circle Earth, a number that could reach 100,000 by 2030. They bring growing environmental costs: space debris, collision risks, atmospheric pollution from launches and reentry and interference with astronomical observations. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-lessons-fisheries-earth-orbital-space.html Space Exploration Wed, 14 Oct 2026 09:40:02 EDT news711186253 Until now, the alien white-hot worlds of exoplanets have been depicted as circular, but new research has revealed the true shape of their atmospheres to be a deformed sphere rather than a perfect circle. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-trailblazing-technique-uncovers-real-hot.html Planetary Sciences Wed, 14 Oct 2026 05:00:18 EDT news711126122 A Southwest Research Institute (SwRI)-led team has developed an improved model for predicting solar events that incorporates activity on the far side of the sun. The team studied near-simultaneous maps of the whole solar surface from 2010 to 2014, combining Earth observations with data from space-based assets showing the opposite side. The resulting framework constructs surface flux transport (SFT) models that are more complete and accurate than any previous model. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-solar-sun-accurately-side.html Planetary Sciences Tue, 13 Oct 2026 13:20:20 EDT news711112322 Turbulence is ubiquitous and occurs every day, such as when milk is stirred into coffee or in the stormy motions of the ocean and the atmosphere. Media in space and astrophysical systems can also develop turbulence, but the physics is different because the medium is in an ionized state (known as the plasma state) and the flow motion is strongly coupled to electromagnetic fields. Furthermore, space plasma is collisionless because the medium is so dilute that the particles do not collide with each other. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-unstructured-phenomenon-solar.html Astronomy Tue, 13 Oct 2026 11:20:06 EDT news711102781